Cundill Prize 2013

[bfisher]

The 2013 Cundill Prize in Historical Literature will be awarded tonight (Nov 20.)
The list is down to 3 finalists from a shortlist of 6.
(http://www.mcgill.ca/cundillprize)

I read one of the shortlisted books earlier this year that did not make it to the final selection - Lynne Olson - Those Angry Days Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America’s Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941, which I thought was excellent.

I have one of the finalists on my TBR - Fredrik Logevall - Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam (Vietnam during the Truman and Eisenhower years)

I also have another shortlisted book that didn't make it to the final list on my TBR
Christian Caryl - Strange Rebels: 1979 and the Birth of the 21st Century (about the 1979 Iranian revolution)

Has anyone read any of the other books shortlisted for the 2013 Cundill Prize?

Anne Applebaum - Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956 (finalist)

Christopher Clark - The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went To War In 1914 (finalist)

Tom Reiss - The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo

[Lady Stardust]

Anne Applebaum won a Pulitzer for her previous book Gulag: A History. I haven't read Iron Curtain but it has excellent reviews and is on my TBR list.

Logevall's Embers of War won Pulitzer for 2013. I've read it and its exquisite history book. Amazingly well researched and very interestingly written. There is also very interesting personality of General Giap whose tactic is explained in a section of the book and who has just passed away in October - he was 103 year old.
All in all, I cannot recommend Embers of War highly enough. It's one of the best nonfiction books I have read in a while.

[bfisher]

I'm looking forward to reading it.

All of the shortlisted books look interesting, so I'm probably going to read them all eventually (although I already have a stack of 1914-themed books on my TBR).

[bfisher]

Anne Applebaum - Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956
was the winner.

http://www.mcgill.ca/cundillprize/2013winner

[Mike L]

At a quick glance, these all look very much like my kind of book. Thanks for drawing my attention to it.

Mike

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by Lady Stardust

Anne Applebaum won a Pulitzer for her previous book Gulag: A History. I haven't read Iron Curtain but it has excellent reviews and is on my TBR list.

Logevall's Embers of War won Pulitzer for 2013. I've read it and its exquisite history book. Amazingly well researched and very interestingly written. There is also very interesting personality of General Giap whose tactic is explained in a section of the book and who has just passed away in October - he was 103 year old.
All in all, I cannot recommend Embers of War highly enough. It's one of the best nonfiction books I have read in a while.

Thanks for your recommendation. I've started Embers of War. Very readable, and makes you think about how different the post-WW2 world might have been if FDR had lived another year.

[Istvan diVega]

Tom Reiss' The Black Count is a riveting read, particularly for fans of Alexandre Dumas such as myself. Highly recommended.

Applebaum's Gulag: A History is an excellent book, well worthy of the Pulitzer, and I'm very much looking forward to reading her latest.

[bfisher]

Thanks, I too am a big Dumas fan, and looking forward to reading The Black Count.

[bfisher]

I've finished Embers of War. Very well written, detailed, and I felt that I came away with a good understanding of how the Indochina wars started.

Now on to something completely different, The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo. Not the Cundill winner, but it did win the biography Pulitzer this year.

[Lady Stardust]

Originally Posted by bfisher

I've finished Embers of War. Very well written, detailed, and I felt that I came away with a good understanding of how the Indochina wars started.

I am glad you liked it. I wanted him to write more on what happened later so I am hoping he's working on a new book.
I also started reading Applebaum's Gulag, seems also nicely written, but I am only at the beginning. I am also reading Blood Telegram by Garry J Bass on the break up of West and East Pakistan (Bangladesh) and Kissinger and Nixon's role. Finished more than half of the book, very well written and informative.

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by Lady Stardust

I am glad you liked it. I wanted him to write more on what happened later so I am hoping he's working on a new book.
I also started reading Applebaum's Gulag, seems also nicely written, but I am only at the beginning. I am also reading Blood Telegram by Garry J Bass on the break up of West and East Pakistan (Bangladesh) and Kissinger and Nixon's role. Finished more than half of the book, very well written and informative.

Yes, it had the feel of an unfinished tale at the end; I had the feeling that he wanted to say more. I wonder what he would have to say in detail about the coup d'etat against Diem, the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, the Tet offensive ...

Thanks for the recommendation for Blood Telegram - oh my groaning TBR.